Reporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva Bontke Brothers construction workers repair cracks and potholes downtown. City officials say costs for street projects so far haven't been greatly impacted by rising fuel costs.

Materials for street projects acquired before prices soared, officials say

By Doug Myers

myersd@reporternews.com

Although the city of Abilene is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more in fuel costs than it did last year, the costs for its street projects hasn't been impacted to any great extent.

Next year, however, might be another story.

"At this moment, the street division is not being affected by the price of petroleum products," said Rodney Abila, the city's Street Services Division manager.

Abila said his division already has completed "the larger stabilization and reconstruction projects" and that the materials needed for these projects were purchased or under contract for prices set months ago -- in February.

City Engineer Bob Lindley said the city has been "working vigorously" on voter-approved bond and capital improvement projects from 2006 to get them completed "before we get hit by big rise in prices."

"So far we are doing OK," Lindley said.

Producers of hot-mix, asphalt and aggregate mix have informed the city that the price will "surely rise after the new year comes in," Lindley said.

Ditto for Abila, who said he expects prices to go up considerably in January.

"Hot-mix is a mixture of asphalt and crushed rock, and the asphalt content is only about 5 percent, so the actual price of asphalt would have to get really high to affect the total cost of the mix," Lindley said. "However, everything we do involves the use of fuel -- and mostly diesel oil -- and so the price will go up as fuel goes up."

One positive, Lindley said, is that the millions of dollars of construction work that the city does involves competitive bidding.

"And the contractors that do the work are scaling down their cost to outbid their competitor," Lindley said. "They do this by innovative management in their work."

As a result, Lindley said he expects the city is going to be able to finish its 2006 voter-approved program of projects "within our budget allotment, and we will not sacrifice it to do so."

Abila, meanwhile, said the two items that the city's street division will likely see the largest increase in will be polymer modified crack sealant and hot mix cold lay -- or products used in preventive maintenance to help "retard water from entering the underlying layers of the riding surface."

"The hot mix cold lay is not a big deal since there are other products that may be purchased to help with pot holes or surface depressions," Abila said.

The future price of polymer modified crack sealant, however, is more of a concern because "there is no practical alternative for filling cracks," he said.

Abila's division seals about 50 to 60 standard miles of streets a year.

"A considerable increase in sealant (costs) would ultimately mean an estimated 25 percent decrease in the number of streets receiving this type of preventive maintenance," Abila said.

In the meantime, interim city finance director Mindy Patterson said adjustments are being made to the current fiscal year and proposed 2008-09 budgets to continue fueling and maintaining the city's fleet.

For example, Patterson said, the city recently revised its current budget to pay for $500,000 in additional fuel costs that hadn't been anticipated.

Furthermore, she said, city staff is proposing that an additional $200,000 be added to the suggested budget to cover even more fuel costs during the 2008-09 fiscal year.

A city staff steering committee also continues to look into ways to conserve fuel and put more environmentally sensitive vehicles on the road -- when possible, she said.